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Patriot Act Pros And Cons

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In 2001 after the tragedy of 9/11 President George W. Bush passed the PATRIOT Act. The act is supposed to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks, but what it's actually doing is defying most principles this country was founded upon. Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act enables the FBI and the NSA to listen to the phone records of millions of Americans. Not only is the government invading the privacy of millions, but the way it's being done is illegal. The government is invading on the personal lives of people who have never been suspected of being a terrorist. The PATRIOT Act is a defile of Americans civil rights and it needs to be ended. One main reason the PATRIOT Act needs to be stopped is that it's a huge invasion of privacy. Most Americans keep very sensitive and important information on phones, and it's likely that that information will be discussed over the phone where the government has access to anything said during these calls. The private lives of American citizens is not what the government should concern themselves with. The government has no right to …show more content…

The PATRIOT Act violates Fourth Amendment: the right to an unlaw search and seizure, and because phone records are recorded without the knowledge of any American it violates the amendment. By secretly recording all phone calls the civil rights of all Americans are being restricted and denied. The government is way over-stepping their boundaries with the PATRIOT Act. Civil rights are of the most importance to every American and it is not something the government has any obligation to intrude upon. The FBI and the NSA break the law by recording the phone calls. How can Americans feel safe if it's the government who's been breaking the law to try to prevent events that have still managed to happen? The government is completely invasive on all Americans, but could there be good to the PATRIOT

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423 Words | 2 Pages

The USA Patriot Act, also known as "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was a rushed act passed 45 days after the devastating terrorist attack on the twin towers September 11th, 2001. It was composed with the intention of finding and prosecuting international terrorists on American soil, but consequently violated the constitution. In addition, the Patriot act allows surveillance on all emails, internet, and cell phones to try and catch terrorists. Regardless, the act ended up having more power than primarily planned as stated in the CNN debate on the patriot act. America was founded on the principle of individual liberties and the pursuit of happiness in the context

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174 Words | 1 Pages

This act increased the federal powers imposed on the citizens in order to help their efforts towards investigating terrorists. These powers included telephone taps, internet taps, voice mail, grand jury information, immigration, money laundering, and crime. While these powers made it easier for the government to track down possible suspects of terrorism, it interfered with the people’s right to privacy. All the provisions under the Patriot Act can be used on the citizens with the approval of a court order. Furthermore, it interfered with the Fourth Amendment.

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567 Words | 3 Pages

The Patriot Act is one of today’s most controversial laws. The law’s official name is the USA PATRIOT Act, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. The law was passed in 2001 after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The act greatly increased the power of the government in preventing terrorism, but it also increased the amount of surveillance that the government performs on citizens.

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953 Words | 4 Pages

One group that argues this is the American Civil Liberties Union, which strongly disagrees with the Patriot Act. They have stated that investigations into the Patriot Act, “reveal thousands of violations of law,” (ACLU), while this is simply not true. One controversial piece of the Patriot Act are roving wiretaps. These allow government investigators to follow and put surveillance on certain people, rather than certain devices, so that they may save time and effort. According to Nathan Sales, a law professor at George Mason University, “Federal courts agree that Title III’s roving wiretaps authority is constitutional and… provides strong support for constitutionality,” (Sales).

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

The foundations of the Act were created long before 9/11. However, the 9/11 tragedies were the trigger point that led to the Act’s implementation. The patriot act is frequently seen as un-American because it violates basic freedoms and human rights. For instance, the Act violates privacy.

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216 Words | 1 Pages

The Patriot act when passed it was overlooked, rushed and it did hinder our rights and privacy, however at that time who was thinking about their right and privacy when such an act had just happened. I was in high school when the Patriot Act went into law and all I cared was to make sure that the people that planned the attack get what they deserved for killing so many Americans. Maybe, they waited for the time that the American people were vulnerable to pass the Patriot Act, because they knew it wasn’t going to get everyone’s attention. Now, that a lot of people know how the Patriot Act works and how it has been used, we the American people want it gone or to have a better supervision so that individuals with malicious intent wont misuse it

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748 Words | 3 Pages

Now in today’s standards, you only have freedom of semi-privacy that the Patriot Act believes is non-threatening. By them monitoring your texts, emails, history along with things you look for in search engines you never truly free to say anything or look up anything you want. Also what followed after this act were the random abductions of people. They take the “random,” person and ship them to another country to loophole their laws of not permitting torturing someone in this country. Instead they hire other countries to do their dirty work.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

Not only does the act jeapordize these rights of citizens, but also fringes upon individual rights to privacy. At first, the government’s primary focus for the use of the act was only to protect the country from terrorists on American soil as well as future acts of terrorism that may ensue, but now, the government has used their unruly power to convict criminals who have virtually no relation to terrorism whatsoever which is clear example of governmental abuse of power. Another aspect of the Patriot Act which brings forth public fear is the fact that any individual can be kept an eye on and surveillanced. In order to obtain personal information of individuals, National Security Letters (NSL’s) are issued to federal agents without a judge’s approval. To make things worse, information acquired through NSL’s on completely innocent individuals can be kept and stored as opposed to being thrown out--a clear violation of right to privacy.

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565 Words | 3 Pages

Civil liberties have been affected since the 9/11 events by the Patriot Act. According to N.A. (2003) “The Patriot Act decided to trade away certain civil liberties in exchange for what it hoped would be more security”. As said, the act meanwhile is concerned on providing effective security measures for people in the country, has encroached on freedoms. Like any restrictive law, it has been controversial. For example “many immigrants who had lived in the United States for decades have been rounded up and deported for minor visa violations, not for any connection to terrorism” stated N.A. (2003).

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679 Words | 3 Pages

The Patriot Act is unsafe, unconstitutional and should be banned from the United States of America. According to source, three president Bush created the Patriot Act in 2001. He signed off on the act after the tragedy of nine eleven to try and monitor terrorists in the United States. Although the act was created to try and keep the country safe, it also has caused several set backs. There are sources that oppose and support the Patriot Act; moreover, the act violates the individual privacy of citizens, can falsely charge innocent people, but can stop terrorism.

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205 Words | 1 Pages

Many Americans feel that their privacy is being invaded, due to the fact that this act allows phones to be taped and records pulled, plus the ability to intercept Internet messages. The Patriotic Act has taken away our liberties, it gives federal government unprecedented power to monitor phone calls and emails of U.S. citizens without a warrant. It allows for bulk collection of Americans metadata.

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140 Words | 1 Pages

The patriot act has in my opion violated the 4th amendment. It has its advantages as far as terrorizim but to normal citzens this is a complete violation of our privacy. bThe late Benjermin Franklin warned us about trading our liberty for sucureity. This act has taken away a lot of our liberties it gives the government way too much power to invade our privacy. They now have unprecedented power to monitor the phone calls, e-mails, without a warrant.

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1271 Words | 6 Pages

Ever since Harry Truman, the government has been keeping internet and phone records. But now, it’s gone too far. On October 26, 2001, President George W Bush signed the USA Patriot Act. When it went through Congress, the House of Representatives passed the act with a vote of

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210 Words | 1 Pages

The fourth amendment can be beneficial but, it can also to some U.S. citizens be invasion of privacy. The fourth amendment states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,” some U.S. citizens believe that Law Enforcement, the Government and the NSA are violating the required guidelines of the Fourth Amendment. The NSA is conducted a mass U.S. surveillance not to believe specific individuals may be engaging in terrorist activity, but instead to believe all of us may be engaging in such activity. The government mass surveillance proves that U.S. citizens are considered suspects at all times. With the Patriot Act the NSA has access to

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832 Words | 4 Pages

US News reports the FISA and USA Patriot Act as a "privacy scandal" (Fox, 2013). NPR News reports the concern of "civil liberty[ies] groups" protesting the USA Patriot Act and the concern for the authorities to demand business records from various companies (Johnson, 2011, p.1). What the media fails to convey to the general public is the intent of these Acts is to combat terrorism and not to invade privacy. Millions of people travel the world every day snapping photos from their digital cameras and iPhones. Perhaps to capture a memory or an unusual event, and sometimes other people in the background.

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